Owl Hat and something matching

Remember the Owl Hat I made for Joshua last winter?

Guess what? It still fits...

















Sorta...

Well, last winter I also promised someone I'd make a hat for her daughter to wear next winter.

I got a huge pile of clothes for Joshua, and the didn't want anything for it, just the hat.

I started on the hat, but then spring came, and summer. And I never finished the hat.
But when summer neared it's'end, the crocheting-itch started to come back and I picked up the owl project.
I felt kind of bad for taking so long, so I made a matching surprise.


I think the little lady looks very happy wearing this!

Thank you Mariella for letting me use this picture!

Love, Caroline

Ripple blanket

Last year I found a tutorial for a ripple blanket on Attic24... I was instantly in love and wanted to make an big blanket for Joshua, for when he get's a big-boy bed (that gives me PLENTY of time to finish it!)...

I started a test piece, which was really easy. I just started crocheting then, and it looked really hard, but really isn't....


















After the testpiece, I felt confident, I picked 4 colors (initially 5, but the brown took away the vibrancy of the other colors...) and started crocheting. I can't remember how many stitches I chained and I made a few mistakes ending rows, so counting won't be really helpful... But believe me, there are a LOT!
The blanket is about 1,5 meters wide.

Progress is slow, I haven't crocheted a single row half of the spring and all summer, but I've picked it up again when the days started getting shorter and colder...
It is getting large enough that I can drape it over my legs and feel all warm and cozy while I work on more rows...
I intend to make it about two meters long, so when Joshua is all grown up he can still snuggle up under it...

Currently working on ripple number 23

















Love, Caroline

Gnomeforest Silhouette

I've seen these amazing silhouettes / transparents on Pinterest.
All kinds, for all seasons and holidays.

And I've been wanting to have a go on one of my own.
This is what I've got so far, still need to add the colored transparent paper...

Please ignore the dirty table...

Love, Caroline

Needle Felted AutumnLady

As I showed in this post, we have a very nice nature table (well, it's actually on top of a cabinet, but never mind).
But there are still some things missing...

I have always loved the nature tables an old friend of our had in her house, with loads of Waldorf-dolls she made herself.

I never got any further than sewing little gnomes from felt, with a pipecleaner base and wooden beads as a head, hands and feet. I've been making those since she tought me how to at the age of about 7, I think...

But when I got older and had already made a lot of them as gifts for grandma's and aunts, it wasn't fun anymore, so I stopped making them...

But since I started working in education, I always make nature / theme tables in my classroom and now that Joshua is getting bigger I want that in our home too. And not just with store bought decorations.

Since I learned sewing felt, I've also learned LOADS of other different crafts and needle felting is one Rebecca introduced me to.

So when I found these two amazing needle felted, Waldorf inspired dolls, I knew what I wanted to do...

Left                                       Right
click to go to the pin

After doing some research on how to get started, I combined this and this tutorial to make the base. I made the head and neck separately, as I was afraid the pipe cleaners would be visible. The head is very tightly felted, the body a little less tight and the skirt is very loosely felted. Only the underside is quite tightly done, to make it sturdy.

After I was satisfied with the rough base I made a dress by wrapping colored felt  in brown and yellow around the base and needling it in place. After that I started adding details and hiding little "mistakes" (little spots where the base was showing through).

















When that was done, I added hair and a braided hairband (just to keep the hair in place, since is didn't really turn out how I wanted it initially).
I also gave her a scarf of sorts, since autumn is chilly.. I was was a bit torn in two about the pumpkin, I liked the idea of a broom for sweeping leaves, but since I wanted the whole tning finished and I didn't feel like going out in the dark to search for twigs, I made a little pumpkin anyway... Looks cute though.
The whole doll had a bit of a medieval feel to it, which I like...
I have always had a thing for medieval stuff and fantasy figures....
She makes me think of lady Marian in Robin Hood, the old Robin Hood with Kevin Cosner *sigh*...

















I think she looks rather lovely "under" our tree... Don't you think so too...
Oh yes, I really need to thank my colleague and friend Elisabeth, since she provided me with roving for the base and a couple of colors, so that I didn't have to do, and wait, for an order of roving!

Love, Caroline

Pepernotencake

Saw this on Pinterest and made my own version of it...
(Loaded with sugar and butter... :-S
And the name is actually wrong, it should be "kruidnotencake")


















Preheat oven to 175C.
Butter a baking tin, or line it with bakingpaper.

Mix 200g butter with 200g sugar.
When creamy, mix in 4 eggs, one by one.
Then mix in 200g sifted selfraising flower.
Add a couple of tablespoons milk, to make the batter nice and moist.
Add one heaped tablespoon cookiespices
(Or of you don't have that (like I did, I ran out), mix the following ground spices:
1/10 white pepper
1/10 aniseed
1/10 cardamon
1/10 cloves
1/10 ginger
5/10 cinnamon
I did have these, since I use them when I bake spekkoek (Indonesian layered cake))

Mix in 125g "kruidnoten".

Pour the cakebatter in the bakingtin, put in in the middle of the oven and bake for 60-70 minutes.

Love, Caroline

PS: You could probably use any cakerecipe that makes a moist cake and add the "kruidnoten".
If you have a recipe for a moist cake with less of no sugar and less of no butter, PLEASE share it with me...

Pattern Writing in Progress

I'm working on it, the toadstool pattern.


















With a grumpy, whiny, tantrum throwing toddler around me...

Teething sucks, big time...

This seems to do the trick though...


Love, Caroline

Crocheted Toadstools

I found these really cool Toadstools on Pinterest.
It's a pattern in Dutch, by GrietjeKarwietje and she has loads more Dutch patterns.

But since I tough myself how to crochet via English tutorials, I'm not familiar with Dutch crocheting terminology.

I had a bit of a hard time figuring out what to do, but when I got a hang of it, the toadstool was finished fast.
Only: It's lumpy and has bumps where I decreased stitches...
I also didn't like the fact that the underside of the hood is red, real toadstools have white(ish) undersides...




So I started another toadstool and made the base larger, crocheted the underside white and broader and finished he hood in red.


I'm happier with this one, but still: Lumps where the decreases are...

And since you crochet round after round, without joining a row with a slip stitch  there is an awkward "dent" (can't find the right English word) where the white ends en the red starts.

After watching a Dutch video on YouTube, I figured out why I got lumps (Here is the English version). I didn't do the decreases the right way. That's what you get when you think you know how to do a stitch, deducing it from another stitch, but never actually look it up...

So I'm making another one.... Using what I know from crocheting Joshua's Owl-hat and applying that to this pattern.
I'm also trying to write out the pattern (using English crocheting terms, if anyone wants Dutch, let me know!).

That's it for now, I'll keep you updated on my Toadstool adventure!

Love, Caroline

Fall

I love autumn!

I love the colors
I love the shorter days
I love that those shorter days provide me with more time to burn candles
I love autumn produce
I love the falling leaves
I love the occasional summery day
I love the smell of the fresh rain

(There is also a lot about autumn I don't love, but hey, I'm opting for positivity!)

I also love to bring autumn in to our house.

So I went outside and picked up loads of leaves.

We have these shrubs in the green area's in our street, which have leaves that turn the most amazing colors in the fall.

I'm press-drying a load of them for a school project, but I did some crafts with a bunch of them.

I made a garland by sticking pieces of drink straws to the back of the leaves with sticky tape. This way they hang nice and front facing when you string them.

I saw this on Pinterest, but can't find the original Pin anymore.

I also decorated some votives. Also found the idea on Pinterest.
They look so amazing when the candles are burning!

I think our nature/season table is nicely taking shape... The Loretta Grayson inspired tree fits in real nice!
I found the cute toadstool candle holders at Flying Tiger. Love that store...!

Now for some felted or crocheted toadstools and a felted harvestfairy (or something like that)...

Love, Caroline

Birthday Party

I realized I haven't blogged about Joshua's first Birthday Party. Shame on me...

We didn't decorate too much, we didn't want Joshua to be overwhelmed.
So we hung the rainbow-polkadot garland and a lot of blue balloons.

Joshua's mouth fell open, when we came downstairs on the morning of his party.
He got our gift an went right to play with it.

Here is the Birthday boy, waiting for his guests to arrive...

The day before the party, my sweet colleague helped me make this amazing cake or Joshua.
Soooo totally not what I imagined, but soooo much better!
It's a three layer cake, filled with peach jam, passion fruit bavarois and coated in a slightly sourish buttercream.
The decorations are marsefond, a combination of fondant and marzipan.

The little turtle-island comes off and is Joshua's smashcake.

\

At first he didn't really know what to do with the minicake, then he started to poke it, but the marsefond stuck to his hands...

He didn't want to eat the cake, until I fed him with a fork... Crazy boy.

 But the crazy boy did steal the show with the Birthday shirt I made him!

Even though we asked the guests for a donation for Joshua's "big" gift, he did get some presents.

The Farm animals are our gift, the Rainbow is the "big" gift.

He also got a cool shirt and an Dick Bruna book from my sister in law, the Earthbook and Ladybird stacking tower came from my other sister in law.

And he got the train form our neighbors.

He also got the Duplo vet and bunny from Rebekka and her family, but since they weren't able to come, I got that gift at work.

The little man as completely washed out after his party, so he went to bed early.

At daycare he also celebrated his birthday, but since I forgot to leave my camera there, I don't have any digital pictures.

I do have a picture of his treats, blue cupcakes, with white frosting and little whales.

I'm ending this post with his birth-picture and a picture of him (and grandma) on his actual birthday.

Here he is, just one hour old....

















And here he is, one year old...

Love, Caroline

Ecomama

Have you seen this?

I'm on Ecomama's blog...! (in Dutch, but Google translate shouldn't keep you from reading it, if Dutch isn't your native language)

It's been there for a while already, I just didn't mention it here...

Ecomama and Ecoweetjes were two of the first websites I came across when researching eco/bio stuff for babies, when I was pregnant with Joshua.
It's has lots of info and is a great resource for other Dutch websites.
A good starting point if you want to do/know more, not just for parenting...

Love, Caroline

Spring Cleaning III & some Sewing

A small update on the office/guestroom.

I actually can see the floor again!
Threw a lot out, or put it in boxes. Where it belonged..!
And I have a little desk space, which is currently filled (again) with my sewing machine.

Finally got the sewing machine back to work, the thread kept breaking, but I fixed it... Yay me!

This is what I made.

Finally, no more searching for my crochet needles or a scissor.
Found the tutorial on Pinterest.

The flowerfabric is a scrap of Tilda I had left from the bedspread, the white is IKEA, also left over from the bedspread...

Love, Caroline

Oops...

I did it again...

Nooooo, this post isn't about Britney, but about how I screwed blogging up, AGAIN...

I have so much I want to blog about, but so little time to do it...

I just think doing stuff is more important, than blogging about it. But I'll keep trying!

I do Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest a lot, so if you feel the need to follow me, go ahead.

So, find me on one of the social media, if you like..

Twitter: @JufDarkAngel
Instagram: @MissDarkAngel
Pinterest: CarolineFJ

Love, Caroline

PS: New blog-update planned for this evening (short one though...)!

Spring Cleaning II

Well, I should probably call it Summer Cleaning...

The clutter in our office only piled up more and more and I really didn't know where to start...
It seemed as if every time I organized one part (I put a lot of random craft stuff in Ikea Samla boxes) I created more space to pile other stuff...
We also got a foldable spare bed and we put that in the office too. I had about one square meter to stand on...

My mom offered to come and help me clear some stuff out... We actually planned to rearrange the whole room in two days, but it has been HOT for a couple of days and the office was too hot to stay in too long.

We did manage to sort through all of my dad's papers, which had been piled into some moving-boxes ever since he passed away....

We also threw out a lot of other paperwork and catalogues hubby gets, but NEVER looks in...
Check out how much we threw out:

I'm almost ashamed, but I feel 10kg lighter...!

Pictures of the office next time, but don't think you'll get to see a tidy room, I'm nowhere near done...

Love, 

Caroline

Party Planning

In just two weeks our little man is turning one...! This first year has gone super fast and we've experienced so many milestones already...

For his first birthday I'm throwing Joshua a Whale / Under the Sea Party. He probably won't remember it when he is older, but I just love the idea of a themed party.
I'm trying to not make it too over the top, but I did start searching for idea's on Pinterest a long time ago and created a "Whale Party Idea's" board.

The invitations have been sent, but I won't show them, because I altered something that's sort of copyrighted.

Here are the idea's I'm using or thinking of using...

Source: parenting.com via Caroline on Pinterest

These lanterns are sooooo simple and effective. I've bought two cheap white ones to hang in the garden (if its dry when we are having the party...

Source: sweetandlovelycrafts.blogspot.com via Caroline on Pinterest

If I can find the time and energy to whip out the sewing-machine, I want to try if this actually works.
The only problem is, in Holland you can't buy rolls of streamers. Just the wedding ones, so I'll have to try it with strips of regular crepe-paper.

Source: somewheresplendid.com via Caroline on Pinterest

I'm making a cake inspired on this one. The bottom one will be a paisley-shape and the top one just a simple round one, as that one will be Joshua's smash-cake...!

Source: etsy.com via Caroline on Pinterest

These will go on top of the cupcakes Joshua will treat at daycare. I'm thinking of sticking on white sugar confetti for the eyes, instead of just a black dot with edible ink...

Source: etsy.com via Caroline on Pinterest

This shouldn't be too hard to make. I'm trying to decide between doing a onesie or a t-shirt. The whale will be felt, since that is easy to cut and hand-sew.

Source: etsy.com via Caroline on Pinterest

Not sure Joshua will keep something like this on his head, but it'll look soooooo cute... Haven't decided if I'm actually going to do this.

As for the party-food, I WON'T be serving anything fishy, since that goes against my principles.
I'm making some simple sandwiches, probably vegetarian.

These also look really good:

Source: clairebidwellsmith.com via Caroline on Pinterest

Spinach, feta and mozzarella stuffed in cresent-rolls.

And these are just too cute and fishy...

Source: comeonilene.com via Caroline on Pinterest

But I don't have a small fish cookie-cutter and I don't know if I can find the time to make one...

If you want to see more of what I pinned, check the board, linked at the top of this post (if you haven't already)

Love,

Caroline

Thrift Store Finds

We've been making (bi-)weekly visits to several thrift stores in the area for a while now and I have found sooooo many gems...
Half of them are already in use or put away, without taking photo's of them, but I do have some pictures from our last thrift store run...

I found a couple of Dick Bruna books, 3 in this picture, but I found more on previous visits. The book that says GROOT is a cardbord book with BIG animals. I love the whale that's in there...
I also found Sisters! by Mylo Freeman, I love her illustrations! I once followed a workshop by her...

A touch and feel book, Joshua is really into those at the moment.
A Bambino Loco pack with 2 booklets for just €1,50! In a normal store you would pay at least €25,-!
A book with fingerpaint idea's and  a tambourine.
And we also found a coat-rack for Joshua's coats and a National Geographic for Andries to read.

But the list goes on: Andries bought a marble run he saw last time. It didn't come with marbles, so he is currently in search of something that will fit...
A cute bird plate Joshua grabbed of the shelve and would let go of, Bob the Builder's Scoop and some Fisher Price toys.


Scoop is a gift for Sietse, if he doesn't have it already and activity blocks are a story in itself.
We bought one at a thriftstore near the bungalowpark we went on holidays at. We found another one at the triftstore in Almere. And ofcourse we wanted the third one too. We found a complete (damaged) set in Naarden. So we kept the non-damaged ones and the rest are on Marktplaats.
The same goes for the mini-bus...
Last but not least I found a Lego Duplo car an 2 vintage Fisher Price cars...
I've bought a lot of vintage  Fisher Price toys lately, I like them a lot better than all the newer FP stuff and they're also childhood memories for me...

I'll do a separate post on the FP soon...!

More of what I've bought lately:
- A canister for my Senseo-coffeepads
- More Dick Bruna books
- Lego Duplo Primo (figures, a caterpillar, train and building blocks)
- Wooden cars (dump truck, fire truck)
- Plant sprayer
- Ikea treasure chest
- FP boat and figure
- number puzzle I used to have when I was a kid
- Stockmar crayons
- shoes for Joshua
- sandbox figures and a watering can
- FP farm with Schleich farm animals
- a bunch of other books
- probably more, but I can't really remember

I seem to have a shopping-addiction (LOL ;-P)

Love, Caroline

Veggie Garden

It's been a while since I've written about my veggiegardenexperiment (nice scrabbleword!).

I've got a big amount of pictures for you. Some a big surprise, some sort of a big failure, but that's why it's an experiment. Next year I'm, obviously, changing some things...

Here we go:

Corn, only two seeds came up. I don't know what the
thing in the front is, but it doesn't look like all the other
weeds, so I'm leaving it where it is.

Currant, infested with aphids. Trying a natural repellant/
killer, using tomato leaves, I found on Pinterest tomorrow.

Grape. Not much to say, just happy it rooted.

Green chillies. I didn't thing these would work.
I planted them in a pot, 4 plants in one pot.
Not much earth for them, but about two weeks ago they
got flowers and now I have about 10 chillies already...!

Green peppers, same story as the chillies. Very surprised!

Herbs.
Left basket: Mint, parsley and chives. All doing very well.
Right basket: Oregano: doing well, dill: almost dead.
Basil: dead... A while already...

Right: Blackberry
Left: Raspberry being eaten, see picture below.
Under: Leftover Strawberryplants.
The Raspberry and Blackberry have a couple of flowers
at the moment, so maybe we'll get a little bit of fruit!

Close up of the caterpillars, can you see the little buggers?
Trying a natural repellant/killer, using garlic,
I found on Pinterest tomorrow.

Scallions, not a big succes yet, maybe if I disperse them,
they will be a succes.

Tomato plants. These are a HUGE surprise. Last year I had
one plant, which stayed small and gave two big,
green tomatoes that would turn red.
So this year I planted 4 sprouts, which grew into these
MONSTERS. And they are FULL.

Full of these: huge clusters of cherrytomatoes.
I'm already dreaming of loads of red, yummy, sweet tomatoes.
Of making fresh Pastasauce and Tomatoketchup, Jamie-style...  

Zucchini's. Green in the back, yellow in the front. These are
HUGE as well. Well, the green ones are, because I planted
them first. The yellow one was planted a lot later and
didn't grow as much.
I've had a lot of (baby)green zucchini's and I've seen a
picture of a zucchiniplant growing up, onto a support
of some sort, so they don't use a much "floorspace" as
they do now. I'm soooo trying that next year!

Appletree, we've planted it this year,
it has had three flower and it's growing three really tiny apples.
It's also infested with aphids.

Strawberries. Loads of them. Under the appletree.

What you didn't see in these pictures:
- The carrots that failed miserably, because I sowed them "under" the tomato-plants.
- The radishes I already harvested and were all kinds of weird shapes... :D
- Last years strawberryplants that didn't survive.
- The spinach which I still plan to test-sow in a pot, just to see how much space I'll need for that next year.
- The mulberry-trees. I actually have Mulberries, but I don't know what to do with them, so if anyone has idea's... Tell me..! Please...

As you can guess, I'm over the moon with my garden (which also has a lot of non-vegetable-or-fruit-plants in it).

Love, Caroline